Budget papers suggest Metro South has a workforce equivalent to 10,572 full-time employees this financial year.

The Metro South Health Service says it is continuing its reviews “across all areas of our health service” in a bid to improve its efficiency by $40 million, 2.5 per cent of its total operating budget.

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“We have received 647 expressions of interest for voluntary redundancy and are currently working through each of these on an individual basis,” Metro South Health Service chief executive Richard Ashby told Fairfax Media.

“Our priority is to first ensure our staff are fully informed on the outcome of their application so we are unfortunately unable to provide more details until processing is complete.”

The expressions of interest came after Dr Ashby told permanent employees of Metro South Health they could put up their hands by October 12 and their applications would be considered.

Some may be accepted and others rejected.

So far there is no breakdown of how many redundancies have been approved and the jobs and areas most affected.

“These reviews are still underway and we will keep staff and the community informed as soon as any decisions are made,” Dr Ashby said of the search for savings.

Queensland Health’s Metro North, meanwhile, has confirmed it is required to reduce its workforce but is not yet prepared to elaborate on the extent of likely cuts.

Metro North, which oversees 16 health centres including the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Prince Charles Hospital, Caboolture Hospital, Kilcoy Hospital and Redcliffe Hospital, is looking for ways to improve its efficiency by 4 per cent of its overall budget, or $80 million.

Budget papers show Metro North’s workforce this financial year is equivalent to 12,886 full-time employees.

Metro North Health Service chief executive Keith McNeil said the only decisions that had been made regarding its service so far was to progressively move out of residential aged care services.

“This decision has impacted 69 staff members who have all been offered voluntary redundancies,” Professor McNeil said.

“Residential aged care services are federally funded and can be provided by private and non-government organisations who specialise in this area of health care services.”

On Saturday, a group marched across Redcliffe’s Ted Smout Bridge protesting changes at the state-owned Eventide aged care facility, which falls within the Metro North health region.

Professor McNeil said Metro North had also announced the closure of the RBWH staff GP clinic, affecting four staff members.

She said Metro North was planning to meet its budget obligations for the next financial year and would “manage this through voluntary redundancies and reorganisation of our service to improve efficiency and reduce duplication and waste”.

Professor McNeil said Metro North would focus its resources on its hospital and outpatient services as “this is where there is a vital community need”.

“We are a large and complex organisation and we are determined to maintain essential frontline services, therefore no specific decision has been made yet around staffing figures; however, we are required to reduce our workforce,” she said.

Health Minister Lawrence Springborg has previously faced criticism from the state opposition and employee groups over health cuts, with the Queensland Nurses’ Union saying in September: “The levels of distress our members are feeling right now are off the Richter scale.”

Mr Springborg has argued the budget savings in health regions were to address the costs of the former Labor government’s troubled health payroll system and it would be up to the new local health boards to find the best ways to improve efficiency.